Flat Whistle at the Window: Young Appalachian Resident Reports Three Years of Unseen Visitor

APPALACHIA, U.S. — A lifelong resident of Appalachia, aged 22, has described three years of unexplained noises around the family home in a post to r/Paranormal, asking the public for any idea of what the cause might be.

According to the post, the author was raised to observe a handful of local rules concerning the unseen: do not whistle indoors after dark, do not answer a voice calling your name, do not follow unexplained cries or lights, and close the blinds at nightfall. The author writes that they follow these rules heavily, though their parents, who do not believe in the paranormal, never have.

The principal episode, the author says, began about two years ago and recurred nightly for several weeks, usually near one o'clock in the morning. While lying in bed with a phone, the author heard scraping on the front porch, then heavy steps. These were first put down to a possum, raccoon or deer. Then came a flat, slightly pitched whistle with no tune, which the author calls unnerving and cold.

The sounds, the post states, then seemed to move about the bedroom from corner to corner, trailed by soft knocking. The author checked two cameras, one covering the front yard and another trained on the bedroom window, and says they showed nothing at the time of the noises. The author adds that the cat, on the bed, appeared alarmed, with ears raised and eyes wide, which the author takes as evidence the sounds were not imagined.

Some months later, the author reports, the phenomenon moved indoors in daylight. Whistling came from various rooms, along with a cough resembling the father's, a sigh resembling the mother's, and, once, a mumbled name. The author says both parents were at work when it occurred. The father does whistle a tune at home, the author acknowledges, but this sound was flat and tuneless.

The author says the episodes are now rare and that they have learned to ignore them, but still wish to know what is responsible. No explanation had been settled upon in the post.